West Trade Review Prize for Poetry 2024
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April 22, 2024
West Trade Review is happy to announce the results for the third annual West Trade Review Prize for Poetry contest.
GRAND PRIZE ($1000 & publication in the spring 2025 print edition): Elizabeth Hickson ("Nocturne in Open Darkness")
Elizabeth Hickson is a graduate of Brooklyn College, where she earned her MFA in Poetry. She is also a graduate of Wake Forest University, where she earned a B.A. in English Literature and received the D.A. Brown Award for Excellence in Creative Writing. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Beautiful Days Press’ Works and Days, Booth, Volume, Sundog Lit, and elsewhere. Most recently, she was a finalist for December magazine’s 2024 Marvin Bell Memorial Poetry Prize, judged by Dorianne Laux. Originally from Ohio, she currently lives in North Carolina.
"'Nocturne in Open Darkness' navigates a topography of grief and loss, love and survival, while seamlessly shifting between human concerns to those of the natural world. Without a doubt, the ending of this poem—poignant, layered, watermarked with mystery—will remain with me for the rest of my days.." -Brian Turner, Contest Judge
Look for Elizabeth's poem in the spring 2025 print edition of West Trade Review.
Honorable Mention: Andrew Payton ("Poem Interrupted by a Bird Fight and a Tantrum")
Andrew Payton is a writer, teacher, learning designer, and climate advocate living in Harrisonburg, Virginia with his partner and children. His work is featured in New Ohio Review, Nimrod, Poet Lore, Alaska Quarterly Review, and elsewhere, and won the James Hearst Poetry Prize from North American Review.
"In “Poem Interrupted by a Bird Fight and a Tantrum,” we are given a difficult, sweet, unflinching look into a moment in a life. The daily struggle is given its due attention here, raising the moment to points of wisdom that we can all carry into the moments of our own lives.." -Brian Turner, Contest Judge
Look for Andrew's poem in the spring 2025 print edition of West Trade Review.
Honorable Mention: Marina Greenfield ("Sickly Elegy")
Marina Greenfeld is a poet from Southwest Florida and Central North Carolina. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in DIAGRAM, Sonora Review, Cream City Review, Meridian, Hayden's Ferry Review, and others.
"'Sickly Elegy' braids strands of narrative and music within a compressed form to generate lyric heat and acceleration. There is incantatory power here. Parallel structures and repetition of phrase. The beautifully unexpected turn by turn by turn. This is a poem made to be given to the air." -Brian Turner, Contest Judge
Look for Marina's poem in the Spring 2025 print edition of West Trade Review.
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Brian Turner is the author of five collections of poetry (from Here, Bullet to The Wild Delight of Wild Things) and a memoir (My Life as a Foreign Country) and is the editor of The Kiss and co-editor of The Strangest of Theatres anthologies. A musician, he has also written and recorded several albums with The Interplanetary Acoustic Team, including 11 11 (Me Smiling) and The Retro Legion's American Undertow. His poems and essays have been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, National Geographic, and Harper’s, among other fine journals, and he was featured in the documentary film Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, which was nominated for an Academy Award. A Guggenheim Fellow, he has received a USA Hillcrest Fellowship in Literature, the Amy Lowell Traveling Fellowship, the Poets’ Prize, and a Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation. He lives in Orlando, Florida, with his dog, Dene, the world’s sweetest golden retriever. Visit his website or follow him on X or on IG @turners_lens.
2024 Contest Judge: Brian Turner
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© 2024 Iron Oak Editions
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